Restaurant News

Benihana Partners With Miami Children's Museum

MIAMI, FL  On March 5th, 2005, children and their families can travel to Japan without ever buying a plane ticket at the exciting new exhibition, Japan and Nature: Spirits of the Seasons, at the Miami Children's Museum.  The exhibit invites children to discover and explore how their counterparts in Japan celebrate and experience their natural environment through hands-on, interactive and multi-media experiences. Organized around universal aspects of childhood—family, school, play, and holiday celebrations—the exhibit encourages visitors to investigate how children living in Japan today understand nature through special seasonal and everyday environments and activities.

“This is the perfect cross promotion for us to embrace,” said Kevin Aoki, Benihana Marketing Vice President. “Not only is the Miami Children’s Museum practically in the backyard of our corporate office, but the exhibit illustrates exactly what we strive to do every day at Benihana: enrich customers lives through the experience of Japanese culture and cuisine.”

The exhibit, which runs through June 6, 2005, opens with two interactive kiosks that introduce guests to Japan's unique geography and landscape. Visitors encounter four environments that reflect a specific season in Japan. Spring in Fukuoka encourages children to picnic under bright pink cherry blossoms, raise carp windsocks for Children's Day and start a new school year by practicing calligraphy. Summer vacation is time for family camping near Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake. In the mountainside city of Kyoto, children observe the splendid fall foliage at one of Japan's most celebrated shrines. Visitors will learn about Shinto teachings and respect for nature, select leaves and nuts to create their own fall collage; participate in a rice harvest festival; and scan the horizon for the special Harvest Moon. After changing into slippers, visitors step into a winter home in Sapporo. While inside the warmth of a living room, children help a family prepare for the chilly weeks ahead by decorating the home for the season, ordering and serving special winter foods, making a New Year's card; playing a traditional New Year's game and watching videos of wintertime activities.